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Ourisia ruellioides; photograph (c) Ariadna Tripaldi, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Ariadna Tripaldi, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-02-01

Ourisia ruellioides (L.f.) Kuntze

Plantaginaceae · Argentina South, Chile Central +1

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Ourisia ruellioides (L.f.) Kuntze: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, (L.fil.) Kuntze.

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Ourisia ruellioides, photograph (c) Ariadna Tripaldi, some rights reserved (CC BY)Ourisia ruellioides, photograph (c) Ariadna Tripaldi, some rights reserved (CC BY)Ourisia ruellioides, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedOurisia ruellioides, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedOurisia ruellioides, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedOurisia ruellioides, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 69 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-9.2°C
Record low -18.2 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
15°C
Jan and Feb at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,272mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
8–47DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet winters: the rain comes October to March (April to September at the habitat), with nights below freezing; no growing season read. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Ourisia ruellioides is a species of flowering plant in the family Plantaginaceae that is endemic to mountainous habitats of the Andes of southern Argentina and Chile. Carl Linnaeus the Younger described Chelone ruelloides in 1782, and German botanist Otto Kuntze transferred it to the genus Ourisia in 1898. Plants of this species are large, showy plants with red, tubular almost regular corollas that are glabrous (hairless) inside the corolla tube, an irregular ciliate calyx with two calyx lobes deeply divided and three shallowly divided, and glabrous, serrate, ovate leaves. It is the most widespread and common species of Ourisia spanning 22 degrees of latitude and is the type species of the genus Ourisia.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Ourisia ruellioides", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a rainy season and no growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,553 mm of 2,208 mm) falls in April to September, the cooler part of the year, but the mean nightly low is below freezing in June, July, August, September and October, so the rule reads no growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: October to March.

Rain

2,208 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,553 mm of it April to September. Wettest month June at 360 mm, driest month February at 74 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,279 mm to 3,765 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,272 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,208 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 8 to 47 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 4, the highest 90th-percentile month 54).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -9.2 °C, the absolute minimum -18.2 °C, 5,896 frost nights in 44 years, 134.0 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 26.3 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -3.9 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range -6.8 °C to -0.5 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 15.3 °C in February (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -9.2 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 59 to 68% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -27 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Ourisia ruellioides through the yearWarmest months January and February, mean daily high 15 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low -3.9 °C; 2,208 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, southern hemisphere.-20°-10°0°10°20°30°frost26.3° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-18.2° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0200400600800mm rainDLI 8–47RH 59–68%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 204 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C15 / 8–2015 / 8–2113 / 7–188 / 4–145 / 1–102 / -2–62 / -2–63 / -1–75 / 1–97 / 3–1210 / 4–1513 / 6–18
Night °C5 / 1–85 / 2–94 / 0–82 / -2–5-1 / -4–3-3 / -6–1-4 / -7–-1-3 / -6–0-2 / -5–1-1 / -4–21 / -2–53 / 0–7
Rain mm92 / 50–21974 / 41–193114 / 65–259190 / 113–344307 / 145–548360 / 141–633288 / 128–505246 / 116–424162 / 83–268157 / 88–289112 / 66–226106 / 57–241
DLI46 / 35–5439 / 28–4728 / 19–3617 / 11–2411 / 6–158 / 4–1110 / 5–1415 / 10–1925 / 18–2934 / 28–3942 / 36–4847 / 38–53
RH %60 / 53–6759 / 53–6661 / 55–6765 / 58–6967 / 60–7168 / 62–7266 / 60–6965 / 60–6863 / 59–6763 / 59–6662 / 57–6661 / 56–67
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 204 grid cells holding the 339 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 2668:2165 (-43.425, -71.725). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -18.2 °C, 1st-percentile night -9.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 26.3 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 204 distinct grid cells holding 339 of the 339 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2668:2165 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -43.50_-71.875, lapse-corrected -27 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 897 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeArgentina South, Chile Central, Chile South · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker-50.942, -72.94 · in the densest population, 269 records (66% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 405 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 339 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 128 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 668 km away. 66 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 405 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Ourisia ruellioides, photograph 1did not loadOurisia ruellioides, photograph 2did not loadOurisia ruellioides, photograph 3did not loadOurisia ruellioides, photograph 4did not loadOurisia ruellioides, photograph 5did not loadOurisia ruellioides, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Ariadna Tripaldi, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (4).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Escallonia alpina Escallonia alpina Escalloniaceae Photo: CC BY, Cesar OrmazabalNothofagus pumilio Nothofagus pumilio Lenga Beech Photo: CC BY-SA, Grzegorz GrzejszczakRibes cucullatum Ribes cucullatum Grossulariaceae Photo: CC BY, Cody HinchliffMaytenus disticha Maytenus disticha Celastraceae Photo: CC BY, Ezequiel RackerChloraea magellanica Chloraea magellanica Porcelain orchid Photo: CC BY, Cesar OrmazabalHaastia recurva Haastia recurva Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Cara-Lisa Schloots

Other Ourisia 9 in the reference

Ourisia alpina Ourisia alpina Plantaginaceae Photo: CC BY, Morten RossOurisia caespitosa Ourisia caespitosa Creeping mountain foxglove Photo: CC BY-SA, Jacob LittlejohnOurisia coccinea Ourisia coccinea Plantaginaceae Photo: CC BY, Cody HinchliffOurisia glandulosa Ourisia glandulosa Plantaginaceae Photo: CC BY, Irisa HudsonOurisia macrocarpa Ourisia macrocarpa Snowy mountain foxglove Photo: CC BY, John BarklaOurisia macrophylla Ourisia macrophylla Mountain foxglove Photo: CC BY, Angus CampbellOurisia microphylla Ourisia microphylla Plantaginaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Grzegorz GrzejszczakOurisia modesta Ourisia modesta Plantaginaceae Photo: CC BY, Lorraine CookOurisia vulcanica Ourisia vulcanica Plantaginaceae Photo: CC BY, Lorraine Cook

Names & registers

Also known as Chelone ruellioides; Ourisia glabra; Ourisia magellanica; Ourisia miltopsis; Ourisia poeppigii and 2 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Plantaginaceae
Described by
(L.f.) Kuntze
Native to
Argentina South, Chile Central, Chile South
Wild records
405 in range · 128 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22GBIF's key 8400154 is Ourisia ruellioides (L.fil.) Kuntze; the page links Kew's Ourisia ruellioides (L.f.) Kuntze, and the name is cited as Kew cites it
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -43.50_-71.875, lapse-corrected -27 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 15 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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